Marriage fraud scam participants sentenced

Federal prosecutors filed several indictments targeting what investigators say was a marriage fraud ring operated out of Brevard County, linking would be Americans with partners from former Soviet satellite countries.(Photo: FILE)

A federal judge handed down sentences for three people who ran a marriage scam ring in Brevard County to facilitate immigration benefits for foreigners, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

Investigators with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Americans were paid — in some case up to $20,000 — to enter into sham marriages with foreign nationals so that the foreigners could apply to become U.S. residents.

The investigators say the defendants began bringing the foreign nationals to Brevard beginning in 2015. At least 100 people were married through the ring.

Federal authorities, who worked with the Brevard County Clerk of Court on the case, charged nine people; three are awaiting trial. County officials noticed a surge in marriage between Brevard residents and citizens from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other former Soviet countries.

William Matthew Tex Price, 31, of Cocoa was sentenced to two years in federal prison for marriage fraud. That sentence will run concurrent with a two-year sentence for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Federal officials said Price recruited more than 20 people, including his ex-wife, to participate in the sham marriages.

Maria Rogacheva, 28, of Russia was sentenced to five months in prison. She was in a sham marriage with Price, officials said.

Khagan Mushfig Oglu Nabili, 24, of Azerbaijan was sentenced to time served.

Denis Yakovlev, 40, of Russia, and Meghan Toole, 28, of Cocoa, previously pleaded guilty for their involvement in this conspiracy. In November 2016, Yakovlev was sentenced to 15 months in prison for encouraging or inducing an alien to reside in the U.S.

Toole, Price's ex-wife, was sentenced to four months for marriage fraud. She had entered a sham marriage with Bakhramovich Yadigarov, 26, of Uzbekistan.

On Jan. 2, April Coleen Moore, 24, of Satellite Beach pleaded guilty for her sham marriage to Valriy Tsoy, 33, of Kazakhstan. Moore will be sentenced on March 23.

Tsoy, Yadigarov, and Svetlana Vladimirovna Shakhramanyan, 28, of Azerbaijan are set for trial in May. Shakhramanyan was another "wife" of Price who participated in the scheme.

Lamaur Stancil is a breaking news reporter for Florida Today and TCPalm.com. He can be reached at 321-242-3662 or 321-987-7179. E-mail him at lamaur.stancil@tcpalm.com. Follow him on Twitter at @TCPalmLStancil.